The motherboard tray inside Prodigy sits on the shelf above the PSU and this is feasible due to the size of the Mini-ITX form factor. There are just 4x stand-offs for mounting the motherboard which is standard.
On either side of the tray there are dual cut-outs for routing cables through from the PSU to the system.
The motherboard tray inside Prodigy
BitFenix have equipped Prodigy with a 120mm rear exhaust fan to help drive unwanted heat out of the chassis, this fan will sit just above the CPU cooler and is in the ideal location for efficiency. Those who are keen to add in extra cooling can attach dual 120mm cooling fans to the top of the chassis or even a 240mm radiator as per previous section of this review.
A 120mm rear exhaust fan is included
Over on the other side of the chassis is a single 5.25” drive bay – this requires the use of standard screws/screwdriver to install. Its unnecessary to have more than one spot for this type of device in such a case or system so this is a good choice and it means that space can be dedicated to other areas.
A single optical drive bay slot
HDD storage is a prominent feature within Prodigy and there are two cages that can accommodate up to five 2.5” or 3.5” drives. We’ve seen the method for installing drives inside Prodigy on many other BitFenix cases – the HDD must be attached to a tray and then installed into a slot within the cage (more on the installation later in the review).
The upper cage can actually be removed – no screws are required; a simples queeze and pull on the cage clips releases this cage. With this cage removed longer graphics cards can be installed and of course the airflow within Prodigy has less obstruction because there is a 120mm intake fan mounted to the front of the case. Although this is a good idea it would have been more effective having this cooling fan installed in the slot above its current positioned as this would create even greater air pressure and probably improve airflow with the top cage removed.
Install up to five HDDs inside Prodigy
The upper cage is removable
With our inspection now complete, in the next section we will install our Mini-ITX system within Prodigy to see how it handles such hardware.
